Caribbean neighbours Anguilla and the BVI jump for Jazz

Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands are once again poised to regain a place on the Caribbean Jazz map for 2007, Anguilla with the Fifth Tranquility Jazz Festival and the BVI with the Thirteenth Season of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College’s Performance Arts Series.  This BVI series has two components, a Jazz Showcase and Classics in the Atrium that alternate every so many weeks throughout the academic year.

The HLSCC has not released its complete Jazz roster for the 2007/2008 series, but the Limin’ Times, a free guide to our Island’s happenings says that saxophonist Steve Wilson is scheduled for November 2.  Wilson performed in the Jazz Showcase on November 8, 2002.

A source tells me that Andy Narell has been booked and will perform this season too.  Narell has done more than any other Jazz musician I know to grow the steelpan into a credible lead instrument, on the world stage at that.   He has fourteen recordings to his credit.  This will be a show not to be missed by anyone, Jazz buff or not, who loves the sweet pings of the steelpan. 

   Andy Narell

Lately, Narell has teamed up with three musicians from the French West Indies, pianist Mario Canonge (Jazz in January, Piano Madness – A Weekend of Latin/Caribbean Jazz, BVI, 1999) and bassist Michel Alibo from Martinique and drummer Jean Philippe Fanfant from Guadeloupe to produce a couple of Cd’s under the Sakésho banner.  (I can place on record that their sophomore release We Want You to Say…Yeah has been stuck in my CD carousel for the past month plus.)

We Want You to Say…Yeah (2004)

Over in Anguilla, the Tranquility Jazz Festival will come alive from November 8 - 11 at various venues around the island.  Down to perform are a number of artists that, strangely enough, I have seen live at different times over the years.  Now, this is a problem right here because never before has a major Jazz Festival in the Caribbean attracted a lineup, most of whom I have already seen in concert. 

For instance, I just got blown away by sax man Mike Phillips at the BVI Music Festival (May 2007).  Now, Phillips will open for Cassandra Wilson on Saturday, November 10 and headline the festival at Sandy Ground on Sunday, November 11.  As an added note, Phillips is returning to the Cayman Islands Jazz Festival in December.  He was there in 2006.

  Mike Phillips

As stated above, sultry songstress Cassandra Wilson will be the featured performer on Saturday 10.  Wilson entertained me at an Ottawa, Canada Jazz club some time back.  I have not lost track of her since.

Singer Dianne Schuur has kept my ears ringing from the days when the Martinique Jazz Festival was the biggest such festival in the Caribbean.  Those were many moons before St. Lucia Jazz, I tell you.  I had the pleasure then of interviewing her at length for my Sunday night radio show on DBS Radio, Dominica.  Schuur will sing and doubtless tickle the keys on Thursday 08.

Monty Alexander.  Pianist Monty Alexander is all over the place, literally and musically these days.  However, on Friday, November 09, find him at the Main Event venue, the Temenos Golf Club in Anguilla’s West End.  He might just play you a cover or two of Bob Marley’s iconic masterpieces.  Alexander was one of the first major Caribbean Jazz artists I saw in the early days of my Jazz addiction.  He was on the same bill at Barbados’ Paint It Jazz Festival (now renamed Barbados Jazz Festival) with Jamaican pianist Marjorie Whylie and the Whylie Rhythms.  That was in the 1980’s, thank you.

And oh, Alexander just made a presentation September 19 to honorees of Counterpart International’s World Leadership Awards in New York.  One of the honorees happened to be Mr. Paxton Baker, executive Vice President and General Manager of BET J and BET Digital Networks and BET Event Productions.  Baker is the personality behind the Tranquility Jazz Festival, the Cayman Islands Jazz Festival, St. Lucia Jazz among others.

The Caribbean will also be represented by United States Virgin Islands bass player, Reuben R. Rogers and the most talented of Anguilla’s musicians led by Lennox Vanterpool.  I have made the deduction that the Anguillan musicians will bask under the spotlight – make that sunlight – at “Jazz on the Parkway” (November 09) and at Sandy Ground where, as the Sunday Jazz Band, they will back up Mike Phillips to close the Fifth Tranquility Jazz Festival 2007.

So you see, apart from Onaje Allan Gumbs, Rogers and the Anguillan artists, I have seen them all.  There is something wrong with that, I think.